THE job creation agency, Forbairt, has lost more than £2 million on an abortive research project undertaken for an anonymous company. Forbairt's chief executive, Mr Dan Flinter, said the contract was inherited from Eolas and should never have been undertaken.
The research was for the development of miniature circuit breakers used in the electronics industry. The contract was for £175,000 and was to be completed within 22 months. Seven years later the product was still at the design stage and Mr Flinter told the Public Accounts Committee of the Dail yesterday that he had decided to discontinue it.
The company concerned was paid £850,000 in compensation. Eolas had taken out indemnity insurance cover for £1.6 million but the insurance company declared the cover void because it said there had not been full disclosure when the policy was taken out.
Eolas incurred costs of £1.4 million and Forbairt another £146,000, plus the £850,000 paid to the company in compensation for not honouring the contract. The company reimbursed Forbairt with a token £117,000. Mr Flinter said the firm could not be named because of a confidentiality clause in the agreement.
Mr Flinter said that within three months of Forbairt being set up it had been decided to withdraw from the project. He said Eolas and its predecessor, the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, had engaged in similar projects which were successful and had become "over confident".
A Dublin local authority is paying over £5,000 a year to a public relations company to market its services. A committee meeting of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council was told yesterday Carr Communications has been retained at an annual fee of £5,000 since 1993.
Carr Communications is also paid to produce the council newsletter and annual report.
In a written reply to a question from Cllr Denis O'Callaghan (DL), the county manager, Mr Kevin O'Sullivan, gave no payment details for this work, described as "expertise on specific Projects payable on an individual basis".
Carr Communications was employed by the County and City Managers' Association in 1990 to "carry out a programme among various local authorities in order to improve the image of local authorities", the reply said, and to "train personnel in each participating body to handle media interviews and to understand the requirements of the media".
The annual £5,000 retainer covers staff training on "personal presentations, press releases, public relations and marketing strategies in relation to the county council's services". The company, set up by former RTE broadcaster Bunny Carr, lost lucrative Government contracts with the last change of government. The contracts under the Fianna Fail led Government included the Departments of the Taoiseach, Justice, Tourism and Trade and Finance. The former Taoiseach, Mr Reynolds, retained Mr Tom Savage, head of Carr Communications, to assist him and his Ministers of State on media matters.